Julian Schnabel 'Selected Works From Home' Opens at Guild Hall

In 1998, the multifaceted, interdisciplinary artist Julian Schnabel presented a solo show at Guild Hall featuring some of his prolific work. Now, Guild Hall welcomes Schnabel back to its museum for a show that celebrates over 40 years of dedicated work.

The exhibition, “Julian Schnabel, Selected Works From Home,” opened to the public on August 4 after a special preview of the show during Guild Hall’s summer gala on August 2, and it remains on view through October 27. The show features paintings, drawings and sculptures made by Schnabel over the last 45 years that the artist has chosen to keep for himself and that remain in his personal collection. This exhibition is organized by Melanie Crader, Guild Hall’s director of visual arts, in close collaboration with the artist as well as Patrick Hillman, the executive assistant to Julian Schnabel.

Schnabel, a leading figure among artists who reinvigorated the practice of painting in the late 1970s, is known for adopting unconventional materials and ways to use them to create monumental works. He had his first solo show with the Mary Boone Gallery in 1979. He has been splitting his time between New York City and Montauk since the 1980s, which is when Crader says he began painting “en plein air” — that is, working outside in the landscape he was creating.

Schnabel has worked as a painter, sculptor and film director, and has quite an extensive art background. He paints on and with anything from wood to wax to resin and has used his artistic skills to delve into the design of furniture and architecture.

“Schnabel had no hierarchy about painting,” Crader said. “… no hierarchy about the images, content, how a painting was made, nor the materials that were used — everything was and is in play, allowing complete freedom by removing historical limitations. This freedom allowed him immediacy in his practice and expanded into other areas such as architecture and film.

“In 1978, Schnabel traveled throughout Europe, and in Barcelona was particularly moved by the architecture of Antoni Gaudí,” Crader continued. “That same year he made his first plate painting, ‘The Patients and the Doctors.’”

Some of Schnabel’s pieces may look, to the trained eye, like reimaginings of classic paintings. These are his resin paintings, and they are like this for a reason.

“This is in line with his practice of utilizing found objects and reappropriating found images,” Crader explained. “Schnabel’s resin paintings are a nod to the traditions of Italian and Spanish portrait painting, yet the interruption of the white painterly mark places the work firmly in the late 20th century.”

One example of this technique is Schnabel’s painting from 1997 called “Las Niñas (Portrait),” which Crader said “is based on an image found in a thrift shop in San Sebastián, Spain.

“Additionally, three of the 2019 paintings on view are ‘Number 1 (Van Gogh, Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, Vincent),’ ‘Number 1 (Self-Portrait Dedicated to Paul Gauguin, Vincent)’ and ‘Number 2 (Self-Portrait Dedicated to Paul Gauguin, Vincent).’ All are plate paintings based on historical paintings from a series ‘Self-Portraits of Others,’ in which Schnabel recreated self-portraits by Caravaggio, Van Gogh, Kahlo and Velázquez,” Crader continued.

“As someone with a long history of living and working in Montauk and being part of its community, we are thrilled that Julian returns to Guild Hall with this intimate installation of an extraordinary and historical body of work,” Crader said, noting that the opening of the exhibition coincided with Guild Hall’s summer gala on August 2 and a celebration of Schnabel, which was “timed with the final phase of our campus-wide renovation and the same year he releases his newest feature film.”

That film, “In the Hand of Dante,” is Schnabel’s seventh feature and will be released later this month at the Venice Film Festival. A film adaptation of Nick Tosches’s third novel of the same name, it stars Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, John Malkovich, Jason Momoa, Al Pacino and Martin Scorsese.

In addition, Schnabel’s 1996 debut feature, “Basquiat,” has been remastered in black and white and it slated to be released by Janus on September 13. The film was restored from a 4k scan using the original camera negative, under Schnabel’s supervision.

As an artist with decades of work (and a wide range of mediums) under his belt, it might seem a daunting task to choose which Schnabel pieces to show in an exhibition such as this. But for Crader, that was part of the fun.

“We wanted to show work that spanned his 40-plus years of practice,” Crader explained. “Julian’s work is monumental in size and output, and Guild Hall is an intimately scaled space.

“In planning this show and talking about the possibilities, Julian generously offered work from his home,” she continued. “It is work he has chosen to keep for himself and live among. We have paintings, drawings and sculptures between 1978 and 2021, and they are extraordinary.”

Crader’s parting message was of excitement for the show and the decades-long exceptionality of the artist’s work.

“Schnabel’s work has been shown extensively throughout the world. He remains one of the seminal and most prolific artists of the last four decades — and has been a significant figure in contemporary art discourse since his first solo show,” she said. “This show is generous, intimate and a very special presentation. We cannot wait to share it with you.”

Julian Schnabel, Selected Works From Home remains on view in the Marks Family Gallery South, North and Tito Spiga Exhibition Space at Guild Hall, 158 Main Street, East Hampton, until September 27. Galleries are open Wednesday to Sunday, noon to 5 p.m., and Fridays from noon to 7 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, visit guildhall.org.